EPA reps discussing new stormwater permits today

Thursday

Feb 28, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By Jim Haddadinjhaddadin@fosters.com

DOVER — Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency will be on hand in Dover today to answer questions about new stormwater regulations being proposed for dozens of New Hampshire communities.

The EPA will hold a public meeting at the McConnell Center between 1 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. The event will take place inside room 306 of the building, located at 61 Locust St. The meeting will include a 45-minute presentation and overview of the new requirements being proposed in draft stormwater regulations unveiled by the EPA this month.

The rules would potentially require dozens of New Hampshire communities to pay for enhanced stormwater treatment measures, from street sweeping to mapping out stormwater infrastructure and monitoring for illegal discharges.

EPA spokesman Newton Tedder will discuss the new stormwater permits and answer questions from the public at the meeting, which is being hosted by the Seacoast Stormwater Coalition.

The EPA released a new draft of stormwater regulations this month that will affect as many as 60 New Hampshire communities. Meeting the requirements spelled out in the permits would cost municipalities, on average, between $78,000 and $829,000 per year over the length of the time the permits are in effect, according to the EPA.

The permits would require communities to develop stormwater management programs designed to control pollutants to the “maximum extent practicable,” according to information provided by the EPA.

The 60 municipalities in New Hampshire that will be affected by the new permits are located in areas defined by the government as “urbanized,” based on the 2010 census. The list includes a slate of local communities, including Dover, Durham, Rochester, Portsmouth, Newmarket and Exeter. Also on the list are state and federal facilities, such as universities, military bases and the New Hampshire Department of Transportation.

At a minimum, communities that receive the permits must comply with six EPA requirements. They include starting a public education program and soliciting public participation. Communities would also be required to search for “illicit discharge,” manage run-off from construction sites and redevelopment projects and implement “good housekeeping in municipal operations,” according to the EPA.

Communities affected by the new permits were notified that the new regulations were in the pipeline. Many are already under the jurisdiction of permits that have been in effect since 2003. The EPA also released new draft permits in 2008, but they never went into effect.

The stormwater treatment program will be a new addition for some New Hampshire communities, which are not already regulated by so-called “Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System” (MS4) permits. Locally they include Barrington, Epping, Newfields, Newmarket and Stratham.

However, Barrington and Epping, and many of the same communities could also be eligible for a waiver from the EPA. Also eligible to opt out of the stormwater permits are Lee, Madbury, New Castle and Newington.

New Castle is one of only two communities out of 17 that are eligible for a waiver that have not submitted formal requests to the EPA requesting a waiver, an EPA spokesman said this week.

The EPA’s proposal around stormwater regulations comes at a time when many local communities are already dealing with tough new standards for wastewater treatment plants around Great Bay. Complying with the EPA regulations is expected to cost millions in Dover, Rochester, Newmarket and other Great Bay-area communities.

The new stormwater permits will not enforce any new nutrient standards for Great Bay, but they will impose new management practices on towns and cities that discharge stormwater into rivers and streams that feed into the bay, according to an EPA spokesman.

The EPA is accepting comments on the draft general permit for stormwater runoff through April 15. In addition to today’s public hearing in Dover, another hearing will take place on March 14 at the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services Field Office at Pease International Tradeport. The session will run from 2-5 p.m.

More information about the EPA’s draft permit is available online at: http://www.epa.gov/region1/npdes/stormwater/MS4_2013_NH.html.

Staff writer Michelle Kingston contributed to this report.

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